


Alone

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Self Indulgent Leverage/Stargate fics [1]
Category: Leverage, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Broken Bones, Gen, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-07 23:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11634027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: When the pain in his head finally ceases and Eliot falls hard and fast to the floor, he can feel his wrists, knees, and one tibia fracture. He grits his teeth through the fresh pain and looks up to see Colonel O'Neill standing over him, eyes bright and blazing the way they always get when someone under his command gets hurt.The first time Eliot fails in a mission for the SGC, he gets a bit more than he bargained for in return.





	Alone

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only up to S5 of SG-1, but these fics wanted to be written, so I apologize for what will undoubtedly be inconsistencies with later canon. Takes place sometime between S2 and S4 for SG-1, pre-series for Leverage.

When the pain in his head finally ceases and Eliot falls hard and fast to the floor, he can feel his wrists, knees, and one tibia fracture. He grits his teeth through the fresh pain and looks up to see Colonel O'Neill standing over him, eyes bright and blazing the way they always get when someone under his command gets hurt.

"Major Collins?"

"Dead when I arrived, Sir," Eliot grits out, fighting to keep the pain at bay.

Colonel O'Neill swears. "Lieutenant Davis? Lieutenant Johns?"

Eliot shakes his head. "All dead when I got here, Sir."

"Goa'uld weapons?" Eliot nods and Colonel O'Neill swears again. "We should've known when you didn't report back on schedule."

Eliot forces a grin onto his face. "Isn't that why they sent you, Sir? To retrieve your retrieval specialist? Make sure I didn't give them any information about the SGC?"

Colonel O'Neill flashes a bitter smile at him. "Something like that." He sobers immediately. "Can you walk?"

"Not fast, Sir."

Colonel O'Neill nods. "Good enough." He helps Eliot to his feet, handing him a zat. "Watch our six. We're getting you home."

Being rescued by SG-1 leaves a bitter pit of shame in Eliot's stomach. He's always prided himself on being one of the best solo operators the SGC has—twelve successful retrieval missions and thirty-eight airmen's lives saved with only seven casualties once he made it on the scene. It's nothing like SG-1's record, but it's a damn sight better than most of the others on the SGC payroll. It's not that he isn't grateful Colonel O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 are here, he just wished it had never had to happen in the first place.

For Colonel O'Neill himself to have to show up and save his ass must mean he's losing his edge.

Eliot barely hears Colonel O'Neill shouting into his radio for Dr. Jackson to power up the gate, but he does take out the three Jaffa pursuing them while Colonel O'Neill makes sure they have a way home. Eliot hobbles along as fast as he can, fighting down tears at the pain in his legs and wrists. Major Carter and Teal'c are laying down cover fire as Colonel O'Neill all but drags him to the gate, and Eliot does his damnedest to keep up, grudgingly grateful in a way he hadn't expected just minutes before. It's not that he isn't willing to die to protect his country—to protect his _planet_ —so much as that he'd rather not do it just yet.

Colonel O'Neill's supporting most of his weight when they make it through to the other side of the gate, and Eliot hears him yelling for a medical team. Eliot can't quite stop the way he clenches a fist in the fabric of the colonel's BDUs, words of thanks stalling in his throat. Colonel O'Neill just glances down at him, understanding in his eyes.

Eliot wishes he was strong enough to go on meeting the colonel's gaze. Instead, he flicks his eyes away to meet Dr. Fraiser's eyes as she makes her way up, scolding Colonel O'Neill about his handling of a patient. Eliot lets himself be handed off and keeps his eyes down, refusing to meet Colonel O'Neill's eyes where he can feel them boring into his back. It's not the way he would have wanted to officially meet SG-1, but he has to say he doesn't regret it at all.

——

Dr. Jackson's the one that comes to find him in the infirmary. Eliot wouldn't have expected it, wouldn't have expected any of them to come find him, truth be told, but he also can't say that he minds. He's heard a lot about Dr. Jackson, knows more than is probably necessary, and though he's grateful he isn't responsible for the wellbeing of arguably one of the best-loved individuals on the SGC's payroll, he can't say he isn't curious about what Colonel O'Neill sees in him.

Dr. Jackson pulls up a stool, his face open and warm in a way that is uncommon on the base. "Hey there. How're you doing?"

Eliot shrugs before holding up his hands, both wrists encased in casts. "I mean, I've been better." Then he lowers his hands, looking at them instead of Dr. Jackson. "Besides, I'm alive. That's more than I was expecting thirty-six hours ago.

Dr. Jackson hums but doesn't say anything for a long moment. When he does, his voice is softer than Eliot would have expected. "It's okay to need help, you know."

Eliot snorts. "Not when my job is to run solo."

Dr. Jackson reaches out, one hand wrapping gently over one of Eliot's casts. "When Jack heard you were the one that went in to get SG-3 and that you'd missed your rendezvous, he requested the mission personally."

That makes Eliot's head snap up, shock on his features. "What?"

Dr. Jackson's face still wears that warm, gentle look that turns Eliot's insides to ice. "He sees potential in you, Spencer. A lot of potential."

Eliot looks down and away. "I don't know about that."

"He does. More than he's seen in a solo act in a long time." Eliot stays quiet. He hears Dr. Jackson shift, but waits for him to speak first. "The thing is, Spencer, you're not always going to be able to go it alone. At some point, you're going to need backup."

"Not with what I do."

Dr. Jackson stays quiet, and Eliot wonders if he's overstepped his boundaries. In the end, Dr. Jackson just pats his shoulder gently, gets to his feet, and leaves.

Eighteen months later, when Eliot gets reassigned out of the program on General Hammond's orders, he can't help the way he wonders if maybe Dr. Jackson had had a hand in the reassignment.

——

(And if, years later, he asks Hardison to dig up Daniel's address and sends him a letter with five words and his service number, well, no one needs to know but the two of them.

 _Thank you. You were right._ )

**Author's Note:**

> [Come hang with me on tumblr!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


End file.
